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Mapledurham Playing Field, Reading

This is a charitable playing field, the trustee of which is Reading Council. The Council devised a range of proposals including the possible relocation of the local primary school, much to the consternation of local residents. FIT made its opposition to the school proposals through local press and entered into discussions with the Council, reminding it of its responsibilities regarding the trust purposes of the site as a public playing field. All proposals have now been dropped, except one that might lead to replacement pavilion facilities, with the possibility of a small scale development to provide enabling funds. The Council has, however, committed firstly to exploring all other avenues for funding over the next year and local residents are working hard in support of this.

Holland Park Comprehensive School, Kensington, London

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea brought forward proposals for the redevelopment of this school including the disposal of land for residential development to provide enabling funding. Local residents have questioned information provided by the Council repeatedly over the last 18 months, and it has emerged (and confirmed in writing by Sport England) that an area of land to the north of the site was used as a hard surfaced pitch/games area but had not been so identified by the Borough. What had been described by the Borough as a net gain was in effect a substantial loss of sport and games facilities through 2242 square metres of hard play area. Camden Hill Residents' Association is campaigning for improvements to the school to be funded by the Building Schools for the Future programme. FIT wholeheartedly supports this since it does not involve the loss of playing fields.

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